Aid worker uncovered America's secret tally of Iraqi civilian deaths
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
04/20/05 "The Independent" - - A week before she was killed by a suicide
bomber, humanitarian worker Marla Ruzicka - http://tinyurl.com/d2tnt -
forced military commanders to admit they did keep records of Iraqi civilians
killed by US forces.
Tommy Franks, the former head of US Central Command, famously said the US
army "don't do body counts", despite a requirement to do so by the Geneva
Conventions.
But in an essay Ms Ruzicka wrote a week before her death on Saturday and
published yesterday, the 28-year-old revealed that a Brigadier General told
her it was "standard operating procedure" for US troops to file a report
when they shoot a non-combatant.
She obtained figures for the number of civilians killed in Baghdad between
28 February and 5 April, and discovered that 29 had been killed in
firefights involving US forces and insurgents. This was four times the
number of Iraqi police killed.
"These statistics demonstrate that the US military can and does track
civilian casualties," she wrote. "Troops on the ground keep these records
because they recognise they have a responsibility to review each action
taken and that it is in their interest to minimise mistakes, especially
since winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis is a key component of their
strategy."
Sam Zia-Zarifi, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch,
the group for which Ms Ruzicka wrote the report, said her discovery "was
very important because it allows the victims to start demanding
compensation". He added: "At a policy level they have never admitted they
keep these figures."
Exactly how many Iraqi civilians have been killed in the last two years is
unclear. Iraq Body Count, a group that monitors casualty reports, says at
least 17,384 have died. But the group bases its totals only on deaths
reported by the media, and says it can therefore only "be a sample" of the
total actually killed. Its website says: "It is likely that many if not most
civilian casualties will go unreported by the media. That is the sad nature
of war."
A peer-reviewed report published last year in The Lancet and based on an
extrapolation of data suggested that 100,000 civilians may have been killed
during the invasion and its aftermath. One of the report's author, Dr
Richard Garfield, professor of nursing at Columbia University, said: "Of
course they keep records and of course they pretend they don't. Why is it
important to keep the numbers of those killed? Well, why was it important to
record the names of those people killed in the World Trade Centre? It would
have been inconceivable not to. These people have lives of value.
"We are still fighting [to record] the Armenian genocide. Until people have
names and are counted they don't exist in a policy sense."
Ms Ruzicka, from California, was killed in Baghdad after her car was caught
in the blast of a suicide bomber who attacked a convoy of security
contractors on the road to the city's airport. She was in Iraq heading,
Civic, the organisation she set up to record and document civilians killed
or injured by the US military, and to seek compensation. She carried out a
similar project in Afghanistan.
In her report, she wrote from Iraq: "In my dealings with the US military
officials here, they have shown regret and remorse for the deaths and
injuries of civilians. Systematically recording and publicly releasing
civilian casualty numbers would assist in helping the victims who survive to
piece their lives back together."
Colleagues of Ms Ruzicka at Civic (Campaign for Innocent Victims In
Conflict) have vowed to continue her work. April Pedersen, a friend, said:
"We are all committed to ensuring the work that Marla did is going to
continue." Ms Ruzicka, whose funeral service is to be in California on
Saturday, was also remembered on Capitol Hill where Senator Patrick Leahy,
with whom Ms Ruzicka worked to achieve almost $20m in appropriations to help
victims in Afghanistan and Iraq, paid tribute to her.
He said: "I want to... pay tribute to a remarkable young woman from
Lakeport, California. In my 31 years as a United States Senator I have met
lots of interesting and accomplished people from all over the world. We all
have. Nobel prize winners, heads of state, people who have achieved
remarkable and even heroic things in their lives. I have never met anyone
like Marla Ruzicka." Meanwhile the Pentagon maintained its position that it
did not keep numbers of civilians killed in Iraq.
'The public must know how many have died'
This is an edited extract of an article written by Marla Ruzicka a week
before her death:
In my two years in Iraq, the one question I am asked the most is: "How many
Iraqi civilians have been killed by American forces?" The American public
has a right to know how many Iraqis have lost their lives since the start of
the war and as hostilities continue.
In a news conference at Bagram air base in Afghanistan in March 2002,
General Tommy Franks said: "We don't do body counts." His words outraged the
Arab world.
During the Iraq war, as US troops pushed toward Baghdad, counting civilian
casualties was not a priority for the military. Since 1 May 2003, when
President Bush declared major combat operations over and the US military
moved into "stability operations", most units began to keep track of
civilians killed at checkpoints or during patrols by US soldiers.
Here in Baghdad, a brigadier general explained to me that it is standard
procedure for US troops to file a spot report when they shoot a
non-combatant. It is in the military's interest to release these statistics.
A number is important not only to quantify the cost of war, but as a
reminder of those whose dreams will never be realised in a free and
democratic Iraq. {enditem}
Url.: http://tinyurl.com/c7kur - 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd
FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://tinyurl.com/4bm9d
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/66dmo
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl
FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 -
any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press
Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. - Url.:
http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html
-0-
04/20/05 "The Independent" - - A week before she was killed by a suicide
bomber, humanitarian worker Marla Ruzicka - http://tinyurl.com/d2tnt -
forced military commanders to admit they did keep records of Iraqi civilians
killed by US forces.
Tommy Franks, the former head of US Central Command, famously said the US
army "don't do body counts", despite a requirement to do so by the Geneva
Conventions.
But in an essay Ms Ruzicka wrote a week before her death on Saturday and
published yesterday, the 28-year-old revealed that a Brigadier General told
her it was "standard operating procedure" for US troops to file a report
when they shoot a non-combatant.
She obtained figures for the number of civilians killed in Baghdad between
28 February and 5 April, and discovered that 29 had been killed in
firefights involving US forces and insurgents. This was four times the
number of Iraqi police killed.
"These statistics demonstrate that the US military can and does track
civilian casualties," she wrote. "Troops on the ground keep these records
because they recognise they have a responsibility to review each action
taken and that it is in their interest to minimise mistakes, especially
since winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis is a key component of their
strategy."
Sam Zia-Zarifi, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch,
the group for which Ms Ruzicka wrote the report, said her discovery "was
very important because it allows the victims to start demanding
compensation". He added: "At a policy level they have never admitted they
keep these figures."
Exactly how many Iraqi civilians have been killed in the last two years is
unclear. Iraq Body Count, a group that monitors casualty reports, says at
least 17,384 have died. But the group bases its totals only on deaths
reported by the media, and says it can therefore only "be a sample" of the
total actually killed. Its website says: "It is likely that many if not most
civilian casualties will go unreported by the media. That is the sad nature
of war."
A peer-reviewed report published last year in The Lancet and based on an
extrapolation of data suggested that 100,000 civilians may have been killed
during the invasion and its aftermath. One of the report's author, Dr
Richard Garfield, professor of nursing at Columbia University, said: "Of
course they keep records and of course they pretend they don't. Why is it
important to keep the numbers of those killed? Well, why was it important to
record the names of those people killed in the World Trade Centre? It would
have been inconceivable not to. These people have lives of value.
"We are still fighting [to record] the Armenian genocide. Until people have
names and are counted they don't exist in a policy sense."
Ms Ruzicka, from California, was killed in Baghdad after her car was caught
in the blast of a suicide bomber who attacked a convoy of security
contractors on the road to the city's airport. She was in Iraq heading,
Civic, the organisation she set up to record and document civilians killed
or injured by the US military, and to seek compensation. She carried out a
similar project in Afghanistan.
In her report, she wrote from Iraq: "In my dealings with the US military
officials here, they have shown regret and remorse for the deaths and
injuries of civilians. Systematically recording and publicly releasing
civilian casualty numbers would assist in helping the victims who survive to
piece their lives back together."
Colleagues of Ms Ruzicka at Civic (Campaign for Innocent Victims In
Conflict) have vowed to continue her work. April Pedersen, a friend, said:
"We are all committed to ensuring the work that Marla did is going to
continue." Ms Ruzicka, whose funeral service is to be in California on
Saturday, was also remembered on Capitol Hill where Senator Patrick Leahy,
with whom Ms Ruzicka worked to achieve almost $20m in appropriations to help
victims in Afghanistan and Iraq, paid tribute to her.
He said: "I want to... pay tribute to a remarkable young woman from
Lakeport, California. In my 31 years as a United States Senator I have met
lots of interesting and accomplished people from all over the world. We all
have. Nobel prize winners, heads of state, people who have achieved
remarkable and even heroic things in their lives. I have never met anyone
like Marla Ruzicka." Meanwhile the Pentagon maintained its position that it
did not keep numbers of civilians killed in Iraq.
'The public must know how many have died'
This is an edited extract of an article written by Marla Ruzicka a week
before her death:
In my two years in Iraq, the one question I am asked the most is: "How many
Iraqi civilians have been killed by American forces?" The American public
has a right to know how many Iraqis have lost their lives since the start of
the war and as hostilities continue.
In a news conference at Bagram air base in Afghanistan in March 2002,
General Tommy Franks said: "We don't do body counts." His words outraged the
Arab world.
During the Iraq war, as US troops pushed toward Baghdad, counting civilian
casualties was not a priority for the military. Since 1 May 2003, when
President Bush declared major combat operations over and the US military
moved into "stability operations", most units began to keep track of
civilians killed at checkpoints or during patrols by US soldiers.
Here in Baghdad, a brigadier general explained to me that it is standard
procedure for US troops to file a spot report when they shoot a
non-combatant. It is in the military's interest to release these statistics.
A number is important not only to quantify the cost of war, but as a
reminder of those whose dreams will never be realised in a free and
democratic Iraq. {enditem}
Url.: http://tinyurl.com/c7kur - 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd
FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://tinyurl.com/4bm9d
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/66dmo
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl
FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 -
any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press
Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. - Url.:
http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html
-0-
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